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If you want to work in a data center during the next five years, get ready to update your skills set.
It's a classic good news/bad news scenario: technology and economic changes mean fewer entry-level jobs and the need to do more with less. Data center denizens will need to respond
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broadening and deepening their skills. The good news, though, is that these new skills, borne of
necessity now, will mean more opportunity for career growth later on.
According to various data center managers and consultants, there's a bevy of skills that need to be learned (see sidebar). Of course, not everyone needs to know them all -- but the more you know, the better off you'll be. The hottest skills include learning operating environments such as Linux, Unix and Windows NT; knowing scripting languages; and knowing various Web technologies to bring to the mainframe.
Perhaps hottest of all will be security, and mainframers already have a leg up here. Because the mainframe has been perhaps the most secure computing environment to date, IT-ers who work with it understand the process for how to make applications secure. That knowledge, and especially the process, translates to other platforms and systems.
In the meantime, "Data center automation has really changed what we look for in terms of skills," says Richard Rothenberger, director of data center operations at Keystone Mercy Health Plan in Philadelphia. "The traditional role in the data center has been to push buttons, pull levers and mount tapes. Now the primary job of an operator is to monitor systems and proactively look for problems before they occur. We've actually raised the bar."
The biggest trend to keep in mind is that the data center is increasingly home to a variety of machines that employees need to tend and feed. Server consolidation is happening all across Corporate America, says John Phelps, vice president at Gartner Group in Stamford, Conn., "and the person who has the most value is the person who understands multiple platforms. The heterogeneous data center is not going away."
And, just like with security, mainframers already have skills that translate into other environments. High availability and efficiency are Big Iron traits that other machines are just learning, and mainframers can help them along. "Mainframe people understand a lot of the general traits that other environments are just now learning," Phelps says.
Another trend is that more data centers are taking on the role of first-level help desk for a variety of systems and applications. At San Jose State University, "we're moving our production and computer operations people into the direction of the network operations center," says Rich Sol, senior director of computing. "And we're creating a help desk."
That's going on at Keystone Mercy, too, Rothenberger says. There, network and systems people identify which problems they want the data center to help with, and they provide a set of processes or resolutions for mainframers to use.
Through all these changes, it's important not to lose the skills and knowledge you already have. "Don't throw away your existing experience as a systems programmer or whatever you may be," advises Rick Nashleanas, principal of Monarch Technology Management LLC, a mainframe-specific recruiter in Colorado Springs, Colo. "Build on it, and realize that a certification program is no guarantee of a job. You'll be competing with all those new grads. Instead, learn how to Web-enable the mainframe if you're already working in that environment."
To help figure out which specific skills you might want to acquire, he suggests looking at the major job boards and "find out what you're missing" to land your dream job.
The best place to start looking for new skills is inside your own company. If your company is restructuring the IT group, it will likely offer training. At Keystone Mercy, existing IT staffers – experts in Visual Basic or Unix scripting languages – offered classes to data center employees.
"I look for people with a good work ethic and who are trainable," Rothenberger says. "If they're good employees, I'll do all I can for them, to help them if they're being displaced" by new technology.
Another internal opportunity is to "volunteer for everything, and learn, learn, learn," Nashleanas suggests. One way to do this is to join cross-platform disaster recovery teams, which are forming at many companies, Gartner's Phelps says. He calls it a "good opportunity both to contribute and to learn about other platforms."
Also, look to your existing vendors. San Jose State sent employees to courses offered by vendors -- IBM for Linux, Sun for Solaris, Microsoft for Windows NT. Some of these vendors are offering courses specifically geared for mainframers who need to learn new environments, Phelps adds.
Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte, N.C. is in the process of implementing a storage-area network that the data center will monitor, says Thomas Lewis, operations supervisor. When that happens, the vendor will send an instructor to give his folks a couple of days of training. Out of his 11 operators, he will try to send several people to the class, he says.
Overall, "I don't see anything going away, just more things being added," Lewis says. "People are really feeling the concept of doing more with less right now. More equipment, applications, procedures -- they're all coming into the data center, and you're still expected to maintain a very high quality of service but with no more personnel." His greatest stress these days is managing his employees' number of hours. Overtime is an issue in a hospital that runs around-the-clock.
Another skills-enhancement option is a distance learning program offered by a training provider. San Jose State recently signed up with Technical Computing Training out of Palo Alto, Calif. to provide some classes. "These are interactive, specific to the operators who are being trained," Sol says.
For those whose companies just can't or won't train, there are always the local community college and certificate programs. These options may cost a bit more, but if you have the time and money, they can be a good investment in the future.
>> Click here to read part one of this series, Job listing of the future: Wanted - IT workers with broad skill sets
For more information:
- If you have a question concerning your career, send it to Search390.com's
Careers Expert Rick Nashleanas via Ask the Experts
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- Search390.com's Best Web Links Careers and Training category contains a bunch of helpful career-related resources
This was first published in January 2003